This bill amends state environmental review law (RCW 43.21C.240) and adds a new local planning requirement in chapter 36.70A RCW. It allows a county, city, or town to determine that its local development regulations, comprehensive plans, and other applicable laws adequately analyze and mitigate a project's specific adverse environmental impacts, making a Determination of Non-Significance (DNS) or Mitigated DNS (MDNS) the proper threshold decision when the specified statutory condition is met. The bill also allows local governments to base or condition project approvals on compliance with those specified mitigation or ordinance requirements. The bill requires counties, cities, and towns planning under RCW 36.70A.040 to adopt by July 1, 2029, a local ordinance protecting archaeological and cultural resources. That ordinance must be developed in consultation with affected federally recognized Indian tribes and be consistent with a model ordinance to be developed by the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP). DAHP is directed to develop minimum preservation standards in consultation with federally recognized tribes; the required model ordinance must at minimum include a mutually agreed informationand data‑sharing agreement with DAHP and a written consultation agreement between the local government and affected tribes. The bill creates a task force, administered by the governor’s office, to review existing state and local protections for archaeological and cultural resources, identify gaps, and recommend legislative changes. The task force must submit findings and recommendations to the legislature by December 1, 2028, and the task force authority expires December 1, 2029. Affected agencies named include DAHP, the Department of Ecology, the Department of Commerce, local governments, associations representing cities and counties, federally recognized tribes, and legislative appointees from the two largest caucuses of each chamber. This is a mix of statutory amendment, a new statutory local ordinance requirement, and an administrative directive to DAHP and to the governor‑administered task force—a procedural change to environmental review and local planning processes. The bill text provided does not define key terms (for example, “archaeological and cultural resources” or the exact scope of “affected” tribes), does not include a deadline or detailed process for DAHP’s model ordinance development, does not specify exact task force membership numbers or appointment mechanics, and does not address funding, enforcement, penalties, or meeting logistics. Full application may depend on existing statutory text referenced but not reproduced here.

If enacted, counties, cities, and towns that plan under Washington’s Growth Management Act will have to adopt local ordinances protecting archaeological and cultural resources by July 1, 2029, developed in consultation with affected federally recognized tribes and aligned with a model ordinance to be produced by the state archaeology agency. That will likely create new costs and staff work for local governments to draft and administer ordinances and consultation processes, give the department of archaeology and historic preservation responsibility to set minimum standards and produce the model, and mean project approvals can be conditioned on compliance—so developers should expect added consultation, data-sharing requirements, and potential new conditions or delays for permits. The bill also creates a temporary task force to review state and local protections and report recommendations by December 1, 2028, which adds short-term administrative work for the governor’s office and participating agencies. Important details are missing from the text provided—such as exact definitions of protected resources, the timeline and procedure for the DAHP model ordinance, funding or enforcement mechanisms, and precise task force membership—so the scope of costs, staffing needs, and permit impacts will depend on those unresolved specifics.